December 29, 2009 3:33 pm

Wide receivers Nate Burleson, Deion Branch and T.J. Houshmandzadeh were on KJR-AM in Seattle this afternoon for about an hour for their weekly conversation. It was pretty entertaining radio.

Branch called out KJR on-air personalities Hugh Millen and Ian Furness, who he believes have been unfairly critical of his and the rest of the receivers’ play this season.

“That bottom line is, are we winning? No,” Branch said. “Do we have a good team? Yes. To Hugh Millen and Ian Furness, we have a good football team. Are we talented? Yes. Are we playing good? No. We’re not playing good football, no we’re not.”

Of course, things got interesting when KJR host Dave “Softy” Mahler called Millen and coaxed him to come on in order to defend himself.

“You’re either with us or against us, bottom line,” Branch said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. This team will bounce back, period. … That’s to answer questions from Hugh Millen, Ian Furness or anybody else who’s doubting us, period.”

On the team’s perceived lack of effort, Branch had this to say:

“Nobody has booked a flight yet,” Branch said.

So the Seahawks only scoring 24 points in the last three weeks is not a question of talent or effort, according to Branch.

“We’re not executing our plays – that’s the bottom line,” Branch said. “It can be a combination of everything, but let Hugh Millen and Ian Furness tell you, and everybody is messing up except for one guy.”

That one guy, according to Branch and Houshmandzadeh, is Matt Hasselbeck.

“It’s not 52 people lose the game except for one guy,” Branch said. “That’s the bottom line. Everybody loses. The quarterback loses. The receivers lose. We all make mistakes. This is not a perfect game. You will not take the field and play a perfect game. Everybody takes the field and loses together as a team.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

I’m for the team but that doesn’t mean I can’t be mad at some of the perceived lack of effort and production from someone like Branch and angry at our front office for being stupid in the Derek Walker situation (already well documented the past few days).

You’re either with us or against us? Give me a break, I was in my seat at every game before Branch got here and I will be in my seat after he is gone. Deion Branch cannot get open so Hugh Millen is simply telling it like it is…

The only team that would field Branch at this time is the Seahawks because of the money invested. What a joke. We’ll see if that talented fellow see’s another down in the NFL following this year unless he manages to stay with the lowly Hawks.

Deion Branch is full of crap. Why does this bum have a radio program? A little thin skinned are we? Houshmandzadeh is another one who’s done exactly squat, and doesn’t want to have to man up to the fact that he’s sucked this year. I’ll correct that, he has done something this year, he throws tantrums on the field and on the sideline, blaming his quarterback for everything, while collecting his money. Branch has done nothing here but get injured. If he was all that, he’d be on the field before it took an injury to Burleson to get him there. “You know where to find me!”. Yeah, on the bench where you belong. “Are we talented?” No. Millen and Furness can see the same thing the rest of us see: half-hearted attempts at catching a pass, badly run patterns, alligator arms, fumbles and dropped passes, i.e. A LACK OF EFFORT. All this clowns care about is getting paid, now that Branch and Houshmandzadeh got paid, we get nothing from them. If they played as well as they run their mouth and throw their quarterback under the bus, we wouldn’t be 5-10 (soon to be 5-11) right now.

So this bum trots out the George W. Bushisms? “You’re either with us or against us?”. Guess what Deion, we’re with the Seahawks, we’re all Seahawks fans, we’re just not Deion Branch and T.J. Houshmandzadeh fans. Some guys actually have shown effort this year like Josh Wilson and Brandon Mebane and yeah, Matt Hasselbeck, but these dudes haven’t. So Deion, blow it out of whatever orifice you’re talking through.

T. J. Houshmandzadeh stated that on Matt Hasselbecks first INT. The play was a naked with no man in the flat and J. Carlson deep. Matt was to either run or throw to Carlson. So G. Knapp is calling plays for Mike Vick and not Matt Hasselbeck. He wants a 35 year old QB with a bad back 2 broken ribs a deep bone bruise in his throwing shoulder and a bad wrist to run the ball with no protection in front of him.
The way i see it he is trying to kill Matt or he is completely incompetent. It also sounded like the three amigos on the show wanted to call out G. Knapp but could not. It is the main reason the team is being torn apart now! The whole offense does not believe in Knapp and have given up on him.

After this interview i have no respect for Branch left. He is a little cry baby.

You know what? Im sure Housh, Burleson, and Branch would do much better if they actually had time to run their god damn routes.. How can you guys sit here and say these receivers suck? After 2 seconds, Hasselbeck is either running for his life or he’s on his ass. Can you honestly sit here and say that that it’s the receivers fault? WOW… Im not one with a lot of football knowledge, so I don’t care what people think of this comment, but from what Ive seen in order for a receiver to be effective, maybe it would be best if the receiver had time to run their entire route, and not have to cut back because our QB is under pressure!

It’s like having 3 Alexander’s on the team now. “Don’t boo us, you aren’t real fans if you boo”. Huh? You guys are getting paid how many tens of millions of dollars to play a kids game and you can’t grow up and accept some resonsponsibility, it has to be everyone’s fault, not yours? Branch is reminding of that character of Leon on the old beer commercials. I used to compare Alexander to Leon, but Branch and Houshmandzadeh may even be worse. Leon Branch, “the fans kind of hurt my feelings when they booed. Deion needs a little Deion time”. And we lost a shot at Ben Grubbs for this guy.

Branch is a chump/punk throw your QB under the bus..No guts,no class. Hass is trying.Ask Branch/Housh for not running their routes to completion.This team has quit at many times during this season.No one points fingers at these fools.Oh, Mora dose throw people under the bus. He`s kinda like Catholics,confess and you can commit same sin again,and again..It`s him,not responsible for what he said,when he says it…. or maybe it`s because the players don`t beleive in the play calling on offense/defense

longco you don’t need alot of football knowledge to understand what you said, it just takes common sense. good point.

A team concept is the line blocks for the RB, QB.
People call the RB’s crap even the D is in the backfield. The QB sucks when he has 3seconds to throw. The WR’s suck cuz they have 3seconds to get open. Everybody sucks when the OC doesn’t call good plays.

I believe that some of these players need replaced too but everybody needs to keep this stuff in mind before listing everybody on the team as garbage.

Let me preface everything I say with this: I bleed Seahawk Blue (and Green). I love Matt Hasselbeck. I highly respect both Nate and Deion for their work in the community, and have a soft spot for Deion –as a person– after learning of his son’s condition (I forget which it is exactly). I have no problem with TJ’s passion and fiery attitude, a la The Glove (same alma matter, weird), and think that his on field antics have more to do with the current coaching staff’s lack of control. I have no desire to see ANY of our coaches back next year. Preface complete, now on to my opinion.

I heard the show live, and I actually thought this was pretty good radio. They sound pretty pissed that they have been getting called out by a guy whose talent level never equaled his book smarts (Millen). Hopefully they play with some of that fire (minus Burleson of course) on Sunday.

To all of the negative TJ comments, for a team that apparently has no passing game, TJ is on pace to finish with 81 receptions for 901, not stellar, but certainly not ‘squat’ as nighthawk2 so eloquently put it. And according to foxsports.com (not sure how accurate this is), his salary THIS year was only $2.85M. Don’t look at his total contract size, as we all know contracts are structured to look bigger than they really are. He will only see the big dollars at the end if he earns them.

Branch, obviously hasn’t been what we hoped for and is definitely not worth roughly $4.2M this year (HUGE understatement, I know). I’m not going to defend Branch’s play, but it was interesting that neither TJ nor Nate seemed to defend Hasselbeck when Branch all but said that more of the blame should be put on #8.

for that matter, his buddy millen should be fired, too… they stirred up the pot when mora was still hc at atlanta, and they’re doing it again. during millen’s post-game show, he blamed everyone (matty included) EXCEPT jimmay!

Yes, Hugh Millen is a boob. That said, where has this attitude been before now? I like the “us against the world” attitude but give it a rest Deion. You’re calling people out before what’s sure to be your last game as a Seahawk? Weak. I don’t have as much of an issue with TJ here. He’ll be around next season to either back all the gum bumping up, or not. People who take shots as they are on their way out is cowardly. Good luck at your next stop, Deion. I’ll be sure to call ahead and make reservations for you on their inactive list.

What makes Weaver making to pro bowl worse is how much the fullback figures into Knapp’s game plan. Schmitt and Griffith line up all over. More spectacular roster management. I guess those of us who really wanted them to resign Weaver were way off…

Remember when, about this time last year, it looked like Mora might be hedging on taking the Seahawk job? When all the Husky fans were clamoring for him to take over as UW head coach (note to fans: Sometimes it’s best not to get what you’re wishing for), and thinking Mora might be interested? (took several weeks for Mora to state he was staying put.)

Is it possible Mora actually did realize back then that this team really was crumbling, and not a few injuries away from being a playoff team? Perhaps he was hedging on taking over a crumbling project, and he would be in the worst possible situation – a team that many (including the GM) thought was a playoff contender undone by some injuries, but in reality was a rotting tenement that needed to be demolished.

Mora would take a real beating unless he pulled off a miracle, yet he could hardly admit in public that the team was in bad shape. So he was stuck. Yet, comments like “trying to change the culture” of the team early in camp, is evidence he knew some major changes needed to be made. And adoption of the relatively radical zone-blocking scheme makes more sense if you’re starting the rebuilding project now, instead of fine-tuning a playoff team.

And, this could be the heart of the front office saying they “expect Mora” to remain. If they really thought that there was a high likelihood of the team collapsing due to lack of talent, then they’d be likely to give Mora a lot of slack. This would indicate Ruskell was already on thin ice (which does make some sense since they didn’t extend his contract early – they let it play down nearly to the end.) If they had loved Ruskell before this season, they probably would have given him an extension.

No proof of any of this, just a conspiracy theory that came to me. Maybe food for thought once Mora’s post-season evaluation comes due (by the front office.)

I’m thinking that the more extensive use of the fullback (in Seattle) recently is due to the lack of production elsewhere. For most of the season, the fullback did very little other than block. The fullback still doesn’t carry the ball much (4 carries total this year.)

They’ve been a bit more active in the passing game, but I’d say that’s just because they are trying to find some sort of play that will help this feeble offense. Of Griffith’s 17 catches, I’m guessing 2/3 of those have come in the last 4-5 games. So I still think (in this offensive concept) that the fullback is little more than a 6th offensive lineman, or a tight end who lines up in the backfield.

Bye Bye Branch, I hope you catch a ball in your last NFL game. You suck, and are on your way to retirement. Small and slow isn’t what teams are looking for, not to mention the “I was the Superbowl MVP” attitude. The only other athlete that I can think of that cashed out on a couple of decent games, is Jerome James. who made about $25million for 8 games in the 2005 NBA playoffs. Isiah Thomas and Tim Ruskell…equal dummies.

I’ve got to say, for all the talking and animated sideline stuff, I like TJ. I agree with Eric on this one, he’s part of the solution, IMO. And if you listen to that radio spot he all but acknowledges that the team as a whole, has issues with the coaching. Is it 2010 yet?

I must have listened to a different show than most of the people here. And DAMN Comcast for replaying the Duck and Bruins game and NOT showing Softy’s show… THAT was much more entertaining!!

First, I heard all 3 receivers say, if someone wanted to call them out personally, ok… but DON’T call out the whole team. They were there to defend their teammates! I can respect that. And before I get blasted, YES, the fans have a right to complain about the current product on the field. It was interesting to hear all 3 express the same frustration/anger.

2nd… and I thought it was brutally critical, TJ called his own play for this year “TRASH!” You HAVE to respect a player that is more critical of his own play than any fan. He also said he would work hard in the off-season to make it better. THAT’S professionalism! They also expressed they were more angry/frustrated than ANY fan! These are professionals that love the game and play with pride.

The most profound item that I got out of this show concerned Matt Hasselbeck.

I believe it was TJ that said, “Matt is a timing QB, everything is based on time.” Ok… I get it!

Reflecting back at some of the old Holmgren training camps videos, I remember seeing him (in his shorts…) blasting players to get a specific play right. They were required to run the play over and over again to get the play “perfect” 10 TIMES before he would give them a break. It was all to get the timing down. I think even Eric said a while back that Mora doesn’t spend as much time on specific plays, but does a more all around practice than Holmgren. Interesting!

Timing has been the way Hasselbeck has been trained his entire career. My question now is, why hasn’t Knapp as OC, NOT understood this? Matt is NOT getting the time to throw; he’s being pressured or sacked at about the 1-3 second mark of almost every play. The receivers are not getting their time to get separation from the defenders. Does that explain some of the confusion or “lack of identity” of this team?

Why hasn’t Knapp figured this out and made adjustments??? There appears to be a hell of a paradigm! Is Knapp’s fixation on HIS system so absolute he can’t see the strengths of his own players? Hmmm?

Just to echo, this team went from an offensive genius heading the unit to a guy that has been little more than mediocre his entire career.

His highlight as an OC came in ATL when he had the original wildcat working with Vick, Dunn and Duckett in their primes. It was gimmick and it worked.

IN both Bay Area stops, Gregory was publically undressed twice. The first time by T.O. in his prime on the sidelines, and the second time by freaking Tom Cable, the biggest douche to ever straddle an NFL sideline.

WOW I Have not checked in for a while but this made me need to comment. Deion Branch should not be saying a word on the radio, TV, or telephone for that matter. He has done nothing, he effort is poor and a number of the interceptions are thrown toward him and he does nothing but quit on the play. Tj is part of the solution I believe but he is not a number 1. I think that this offense is not that imaginative or creative and does not put people in position to succeed.

The use of Butler is a Joke. Get him the ball and use the skills he has. The GM put this team in a bad position by not getting talent on the offensive and defensive lines. Not to mention letting good talent go. This team needs to address the offensive line issues. If 2010 is an uncapped year than please use some of that dough and pony up for offensive and Defensive lineman. then this offense can operate again.

Also Eric, if you could please ask Knapp or Mora about the first interception I would love to hear the response on why you are running a naked bootleg with a banged up QB on a play that normally has a high low option and taking one of those options away and telling him to run for it early in the game on FROZEN TUNDRA. As Kroffty pointed out above you would either have to be trying to get Matt injured or you are completly incompetent. Did they think Seneca was in the game. I would have loved to hear Millen ask for TJ’s take on how in the world that was the playcall. Maybe the only thing Millen was wrong about is assuming that Knapp was not dumb enough to make that type of playcall.

Everyone is getting so work on what these 3 WR said, their not calling out you guys but their calling out Fair weather fans the fans that quit on team when they started to losing, the same fans who shouldn’t be called a Sport Fan just a poser.

Branch shouldn’t be running his mouth because he doesn’t have the stats to back it up the past 2 season.

thought their not going to admit it and neither will Mora Jr because than he will admit to failure but the team has quit on the coaching staff and it shows during the game it goes in one ear and out the other ear. The blame in my opionion shouldn’t be put on Hasselback but person calling the plays who knew that hasselback is getting worn down and can’t be that mobile right now after missing some game this season and also blame on OL as their piece of crap on not being able to block for your own QB sure some are good like Max Unger but other need to go.

pabuwal says: “Branch was one of the most loved figures on this message board in 06 after he ripped the ball out of Jared Allen’s hands. Everybody loved Ruskell for a great move at the time.”

To be fair, there were many who complained about the cost of signing Branch at the time that it happened, but your point is well taken. A lot of people don’t seem to be aware of the inherent contradiction of demanding more playing time for Forsett & Reed and saying Ruskell sucks at evaluating talent. And many of those same people are oblivious to the inanity of saying Tod Leiweke’s personnel moves suck.

It’s fair to judge the product on the field and complain about the results of certain personnel moves. But it is unfair and irrational to judge personnel moves (and the guy that made them) based on information that could only be known after the fact. Branch has spent a lot of time on this team injured — there is no way Ruskell could reasonably be expected to know that would happen, yet some people here hold him accountable for it. If Branch had played for us for four years at a level consistent with what he did in New England and with the flashes he showed us early in his time here, very few people would be complaining about him now. And Ruskell had no reason to expect that wasn’t going to happen when he signed Branch.

“I would have loved to hear Millen ask for TJ’s take on how in the world that was the playcall. Maybe the only thing Millen was wrong about is assuming that Knapp was not dumb enough to make that type of playcall. ”

Spot on…

TJ threw Knappy way under the bus though, even though he kept it above the belt.

Bobby, have you not read many of the posts here that indicate the persons writing them believes Tod Leiweke is responsible for personnel decisions? If not, you simply haven’t been paying much attention. And you can hate Tim Ruskell all you want (it seems to be in vogue) but you didn’t address the main point of my post, that it’s unreasonable to judge someone like Ruskell for decisions he made based on information that only became known after the decision was made, rather than judging his decisions based on information that was available at the time the decision was made.

And you can scoff at drafting Forsett and Reed in the 7th round, but the fact remains that he did it, and those players have become fan favorites. It is disingenuous to blast him for moves perceived to be bad without crediting him for moved that were good.

People are making fun of me for all the Seahawk swag my wife gave me for christmas. I just never thought…………man. Has it really come to this? Will someone give this post to the front office and show them how bad it’s gotten?
PLEASE???

There are approximately 305+ Million people now living in the US. Less the 1700 of them play NFL football. Saying some of these Seahawk players have no talent is incorrect. (I did the math….. that’s the TOP 0.00000577%!) Is anyone on this blog in the top 0.00000577% of their profession?

And, YES… I’m defending my favorite team, the Seahawks. And yes… I’ve been getting a lot of comments about wearing my Seahawk colors every day, but there my team. I’m a SEAHAWKS fan!

I stand corrected. That’s a genuine response, as well. You’re right, he did in fact choose Justin and Nick when they probably should’ve been selected earlier, and both have proven to be good players on an otherwise shoddy-at-best roster.

I’ve been one to believe that Leiweke probably has a greater say in matters football-related than is warranted, although I believe his decisions are a matter of approval, rather than interference.

I suppose the personnel decisions I believe Leiweke has influenced are not field-related, but rather, front office/coaching related, and I still stand by that assertion.

What I’ve heard from “inside” sources lately are that Leiweke is a good man, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

That said, Leiweke was on stage during Ruskell’s resignation and should take the heat for comments he made to us, the 12th.

First of all, he came off as far too emotional, and, I appreciate that on one hand, because it shows he cares, but, on the other, he showed weakness in decision-making, which did nothing to inspire confidence in a fanbase he has worked so hard to inspire over the course of the past few years.

The fact is, as a die-hard fan, I’ve been way to hard on Leiweke, and, after Ruskell was let go, that’s a bit natural, because we needed a scapegoat for failure beyond the coaching staff.

That said, I don’t agree with PA’s insistence on a “search firm” to find appropriate candidates to interview for Ruskell’s position, and I stand by my assertion that people who love the game of football, and live and breath the NFL, don’t need New York search firms to identify said candidates.

It does nothing to inspire faith in the fanbase and is, in fact, an admission of ignorance to the game the front office should be based in.

If I were working 60-plus hours a week in Renton, I could list off the best candidates in a matter of seconds if pressed from above.

And, I know a few other veteran posters here who could do the same.

Those people can only treat the Seahawks as a hobby, because their welfare comes from other sources, so, logically, the only question to then ask is, “What exactly is Vulcan?” And, “Why are they in charge of making football decisions?”

That would be my starting point in this discussion. The question “Why are they in charge of making football decisions” is based on the premise that they are making football decisions (plural), and see no reason to believe that they are. The only football decision (singular) that they make, I believe, is hiring the guy who is going to be making football decisions. If that is indeed the case, I want them to do as thorough of a job as possible in finding the right new guy, including hiring a head-hunting firm in New York if they want.

Please note two things about that. First, they are not depending exclusively on the head-hunter’s list to make their decision, as evidenced by talking with Holmgren. Regardless of how genuine you think those talks were or were not, it indicates they are not relying solely on the head-hunter’s recommendation in making their decision. Second, since the head-hunter’s are serving a supplementary role in the search and not the sole role, it allows the Seahawks to tell them “we are looking for a guy with these qualities” and name those qualities, and then allow the head-hunters to conduct their search while Vulcan focuses on other matters including their own search. Doing it that way can un-earth some qualified prospects that might not otherwise be considered, and it allows them to bypass some prominent football names that do not have the qualities they are looking for. (Just because a guy might be famous in the football world does not mean he would be the best guy for the Seahawks job.)

Let’s face it, since Leiweke is self-admittedly a business guy and not a football guy, do you really want him making that decision without some help? Would you want Paul Allen making that decision without some help? He’s not a football guy, either — but that doesn’t stop him from being a great football owner. I think in a similar way, Tod Leiweke could be a great football CEO without being a football guy himself. And I forgot who reported this, but it apparently is a common practice to hire an agency, even in the football world.

I’m not sure what weakness you saw in his decision making. Emotions by themselves do not mean much. If anything, to me it showed a guy who could make the hard decision and follow it through, even if doing it broke him up. If hiring Ruskell was the only sign of weakness you referred to, then I’m not sure why you’re concerned now. He let Ruskell go before I expected him to by informing him he wouldn’t be extended. (I was expecting a two year extension. This was Ruskell’s first offseason without Holmgren, and it appeared to go really well, so even in spite of the losses I thought he’d get two years on a contract and one year in reality to see if Ruskell/Mora could turn things around. Instead, Ruskell fell on his sword and Leiweke allowed him to do it. IMO, Ruskell was more a victim of bad luck than his own bad decisions, but he took responsibility for the losing, and I don’t have a problem with that.) If you’re concerned that they went through a similar process to hire Ruskell in the first place, I’m pretty sure they will take that into account in making this decision.

Eric- Will we be seeing a closer breakdown of the potential candidates sometime soon? And has there been any progress that you know of, filtering through them and trimming the list down to the 2 or 3 real favorites?

Hugh Millen has lost credibility when it comes to the Seahawks. He won’t criticize his buddy Mora or any of his coaches. At the same time, he had no problem constantly calling out former Husky coach Ty Willingham and his coaches, for basically the same blunders that the Seahawks staff has been making.

Perhaps you guys are right about Millen, but on that program they have come down pretty hard on Mora & crew, saying everything needs to be looked at during the audit including them, and I thought Millen was part of that.

Millen has lost credibility to me, he’s clearly biased, but what else can you expect when his best friend is the coach? Would any of us be any different? Doubt it. That being said it would be nice as a listener if KJR had some more unbiased journalists share their opinions.

As for the 3 stooges on the radio yesterday, TJ needs to talk less and get open more. Branch, who cares, he’s done nothing his entire career as a Hawk and he’ll be gone next season. Burleson has been nothing but a stand up guy since he got here, just wish the injuries hadn’t hit him so hard.

Branch is an arrogant punk. Tommy Kane, Daryl Turner & Mike Pritchard all rate higher on the Hawk WR list, and you better believe Raible ran better routes! Ha! Trading a 1st rd pick for a WR is ridiculous, and Ruskel did it after Branch had his only solid season (05), which even then was his ONLY season over 60 catches. He has reached 1,000 yds ONCE, he averages about 50 catches, 600 yds and 4 TDs a season for his career. The truth is Timmy got WORKED by the Patriots GM. Tim has destroyed our team, and Limewiki hired Tim, so that decision sucked. Tim hired this terrible coaching staff, certainly with Limewikis approval, so again Limiwikis decision sucked. Branch is a disaster. Spending FA money on WRs is terrible, you build and win with Oline and Dline. Go Browns. Go Hutch. Go Weaver.

Hey wa1rus, what are you, 12 years old? You come from the I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I school of insults? The name is Leiweke. And the truth is you are speaking out your posterior orifice when you speculate about any decision he has made besides hiring the GM. He doesn’t hire coaches, and he doesn’t sign players. Try this logic: You write crappy, and the Tribune approved your online account, so that decision sucked. You might be the only person not to get it.

And of Branch’s stats, how many of those pre-Seahawk years were injury-truncated? And how many since then? Could Ruskell have reasonably know Branch’s career as a Seahawk would turn out the way it did based on how he performed as a Patriot? Or do you even care? And how much of that decision was Mike Holmgren’s? He was the guy that needed a receiver, remember?

The Browns I get, and Weaver I get, but “go Hutch”? Really? After how he screwed us, you still like the guy? I dunno, maybe you like getting boned, but I wish him nothing but pain and failure after what he did to us.

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